you can't take Kansas out of the girl, but you can take the girl out of Kansas

There is a daylily farm, Oakes Daylilies, northeast of Knoxville. Every June they have a daylily festival and I finally went for the first time today. At the festival they have special events, attendees get to meander through the display gardens, and of course you can leave with more daylilies for your flower beds.

MDH and I decided to fly somewhere exotic. Asia is exotic to us. Other reasons for choosing Japan over any other Asian country were Japan is clean and organized, people in general are very respectful, and the Japanese people don’t eat cats and dogs. I cannot bear the thought of accidentally eating one of those creatures.

Neither of us speak or read the Japanese language, so the Google translator app on MDH’s phone and the travel-sized translation book that I carried were our friends! We did learn how to say “thank you”, “please”, “hello”, and “goodbye” in Japanese before we went. It also helped that some signs have English translations on them.

Also , thank you to MDH’s long-time friend who grew up in Japan and tutored us some on a few aspects before we went and was in touch with MDH while we were there. “Arigato”, Jim!

Ahoy there! Our first sighting of Japan. We’re quite excited!That thing that looks like a sailboat is actually a vent for a tunnel, we read later. Form and function.Haneda Airport, Tokyo. There are two international airports in Tokyo. We flew out of Narita Airport when we came home.

My Darling Husband, CutieDog, and I explored the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum for the first time. It is a private garden that began life as a retail plant nursery. It is open to the public; entrance is free. They are supported by donations and rentals of the space for private events. It is maintained by the Knoxville Garden Club. The members are slowly restoring the whole garden.

Last autumn, a group of local volunteers planted 60,000 daffodil bulbs in the medians around three exits along one of the interstates just north of downtown Knoxville. I went to see one of the displays. The sight is very pretty to behold–crepe myrtles to follow–and should be spectacular in years to come after the daffodils have multiplied.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company; I gaze--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

Back in December I received an email notification that creativebug.com was going to feature a monthly quilt-a-long in 2016. Some of the designs are traditional quilt blocks and others are new, modern designs. It looked like the final product would be a fun quilt, so I joined creativebug.com.

Each month’s online class is led by a different fabric designer. My blocks pictured above are, from left to right, the blocks for January, February, and March. Quilters will recognize January’s block as an Ohio Star. February’s block is a design by Anna Maria Horner, and the March block is from Carolyn Friedlander.

The fabric I am using is from my stash. This fabric is the Sweet Pea collection designed by a fellow Kansan, Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters. I won it in one of her giveaways a year or two ago. I have to piece scraps together to make larger pieces big enough for some pattern sections, but I don’t mind. That will be less noticeable when the quilt is finished. I will be adding a border to each block, using a solid khaki fabric that also is already in my stash.

Today was a lovely spring day in east Tennessee, and My Darling Husband had the sudden urge to go hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So away we went, up to the entrance road to Clingman’s Dome. Alas, the dome is closed until March 31, so we went across the road to the Newfound Gap trailhead.

Alas, no dogs allowed! We then read that pets on a leash are allowed on only two of the trails in this national park. That is highly disappointing, because we had planned to take CutieDog on most of our hiking excursions here and we want to work our way along all of the trails in this park.
We loaded the dog and ourselves into the car and headed back down the twisty mountain road to this path that we spied on the way up. This path is called the Quiet Walkway and there were not any No Dogs Allowed signs to be seen.

Along the Quiet Walkway is this cemetery from the 1800s. The tall headstone on the right is a newer replacement stone for one of the old graves.

We then came to this river, which I think is the West Prong Little Pigeon River. You can see the native rhododendrons in this shot. Our mountain goat of a dog rambled and jumped from rock to rock right along with us. We sat on a rock here for a bit.

We had met two exiting hikers at the head of the Quiet Walkway, but no others. Not being able to hike with the crowds on the first two trails was rewarded by having the Quiet Walkway and this spot on the river to ourselves, the birds, and the sound of rushing water. Bliss.

While cutting down some old bushes along our front porch today, I spotted a canna lily that I did not plant. My mother-in-law informed me that cannas grow as perennials here in Tennessee. A previous owner of the house planted it. That, or an animal dropped a canna lily seed. Hmmm…I am so curious to see what color the flowers will be. The leaf color is exotic and will add some good contrast to the green-leaved flora that I plant. I transplanted it to a pot temporarily, until I have a spot ready for it in the sunnier flower bed between the house and driveway.

In the brown pot are a couple of hydrangea cuttings that my mother-in-law let me take from her bush. I am attempting to root them. One has a couple of living leaves on it, so it may have some roots, but I want to wait longer to pull it out and check.

My Darling Husband turned over one of a handful of stumps in our back yard and found two hibernating critters. After some research and inquiring of Tennesseans, I figured that they are either rat snakes or pine snakes. Both are harmless.

This daffodil is the first flower we have here at our new house. It is currently the only flower. Previous owners of this house landscaped nicely, but not all of it has survived. The flower beds are in place, edged with rocks. I have lots of weeds to pull and I do mean lots. There are two living rose bushes and a few boxwoods. I definitely will be utilizing those and the tulips that are coming up. With time, lots of elbow grease, and education about some other plants we inherited (new region = new plants) our yard will become as pretty as this daffodil.

Like dogs everywhere, Cutie Dog likes to see what is going on in the world. This is how he peers outside when the blinds are closed. It’s hilarious to see him from outside doing this; the only visible part of him then is his little black nose. So cute.

We left Michigan, the state I learned to appreciate, and drove through Ohio (note the silhouette on the barn: this farmer supports life by growing food and reminding all passersby of the truth that life begins before birth) and Kentucky to our new home in east Tennessee.

where I took a gorgeous photograph of him but he could care less about portrait photography, so we walked

and gathered the lone ripe berry in the whole park

I do believe that the 2014 berry season has drawn to a close unless the mulberry trees around the corner from our house are still bearing. They have born for a longer period this summer than last year. I’ll check their status this week.

My Darling Husband’s employer is located at a local airport. We joined some of his colleagues on the grassy knoll next to work and watched the Thunder over Michigan air show today. No tickets needed! The compromise for free viewing is that you don’t get to see the planes up close.

Over the past few weeks I have been picking mulberries and raspberries. Both kinds of fruit grow wild in this region, along with there being u-pick orchards that sell raspberries. I have a few plastic containerfuls from the wild fruits that I picked. I was going to make some jam with them and the small amount of strawberries that I picked at a farm last month. Said fruit has been in the freezer. The jam has yet to be made. My Darling Husband was in dire need want of something sweet today, so I used some of the mulberries and raspberries to make a cobbler. I used this heirloom recipe from one branch of My Darling Husband’s family. In place of margarine (oleo), I used butter and a little vegetable shortening; I approximated 1/2 cup. For the flour, I used 3/4 cup all-purpose and 1/4 cup wheat. Then I ended up stirring in a bit more wheat flour because I used too much butter/shortening! I used unsweetened fruit, except for the sugar that was already in the cherry pie filling that I mixed with the mulberries and raspberries. It turned out good: the right balance of fruit and cake. Deeelicious! It would be even better with real whipped cream.